A Ghastly Discovery Near Sugar Creek
A set of skeletal remains, pinned under a decayed fir tree, suggests a lonely, long-forgotten death in the remote mountains.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The lower limbs of a skeleton were found in the mountains near Sugar Creek, about twenty miles east of Castle Rock, one day last week by Thomas Sugars. They lay beneath an old fir tree, which had fallen many years ago, as it was decayed, and the supposition is that the person was killed by the falling tree. The upper portion of the skeleton could not be found, and was probably carried away by wild animals. The bones had the appearance of having lain there over twenty years.
“The lower limbs of a skeleton were found in the mountains... the upper portion... was probably carried away by wild animals.”
This discovery highlights the dangers of the rugged, untamed wilderness that defined 19th-century Washington. While the site of the discovery near Sugar Creek is now largely obscured by time and forest growth, it serves as a grim reminder of the many prospectors who vanished while working the remote backcountry.
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